


Respite at the Slum Church

by SailorStarDust1



Series: Final Heaven: CloTi prompts [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake - Fandom
Genre: Clerifa if you squint, F/M, Friendship/Love, Prompt Fill, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-01-23 04:24:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18542206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorStarDust1/pseuds/SailorStarDust1
Summary: With President Shinra dead at the hands of Sephiroth, "The Ancient" simply wasn't the company's priority any longer. Surely Cloud and friends returning to Sector 5 for some rest wouldn't hurt?Prompt Fill: Remake, subprompt: Deity for Finalheaven's April Prompt Challenge.





	Respite at the Slum Church

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [SailorStarDust1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorStarDust1/pseuds/SailorStarDust1) in the [FinalheavenServerApr2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/FinalheavenServerApr2019) collection. 



> Well, I planned on taking a break from these Prompt fics to focus on the rest of my writing, but they're too darn fun—especially playing around with Remake universe possibilities. Please enjoy!

“I’ll just be a minute!”

Aerith cheerfully offered, briskly walking over to the church’s flower bed. She shook her head. “Poor things. This is what happens when I’m away for two days.”

Dress flowing around her, Aerith didn’t mind getting dirt against her knees, quietly setting to work while moonlight and flickering church candles faintly illuminated her features. A beautiful blend of Frankincense and Myrrh permeated this holy place, pleasantly filling Cloud and Tifa’s senses. Making the most of their rest, hand in hand, the childhood friends wordlessly marveled at large stained glass windows, faded equally from bad weather and the pollution of Slum life.

Tifa couldn’t help that vague excitement stir within her chest. Returning to a starry sky, out in the vast world, obscured for the past 5 years...would be absolutely breathtaking.

Cloud was faintly smiling at the flower seller’s joke, deciding to rest on one of the pews that wasn’t terribly worse for the wear. Beside him sat Tifa, cracking her knuckles and stretching her arms above her head. Cloud’s gaze wandered lower before an internal reprimand— _She’s your oldest friend!_ —visually refocusing straight ahead. It _certainly_ worked in their favor that the Sector 5 gates were unattended, after their prison break from Shinra HQ.

“You have _no_ idea how relieved I am that we busted out!” Tifa’s butt still ached from the cold metal bed in the cell she and Cloud shared, but Cloud didn’t need to know _that_ tidbit.

“It’s a mixed blessing that Shinra’s priority is now Sephiroth, but are we honestly safe in Sector 5 again?”

“Barret and Red are scouting ahead, right? They’ll call us on the PHS if trouble arrives. Besides, I thought you wanted to visit Marlene?” _Aerith should see her mom before our journey begins, too. Who knows how long it’ll us take to find and confront Sephiroth?_

No guards on duty in Shinra’s cells allowed ample time to explain Sephiroth’s descent into madness with privacy on their side, despite Aerith and company unable to see Tifa’s occasionally unsettled body language. As if something in Cloud’s story didn’t 100% line up.  

“We—well, of course.” Helping Barret look after his daughter brought a warmth to her heart otherwise hard to articulate. Tifa certainly wasn’t the girl’s mother, but a loving female presence in that 4 year old’s life—such a formative age—was desperately crucial.

She couldn’t help stammer, truthfully taken aback that Cloud’s somewhat cold exterior was melting little by little. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. The ex-Soldier came to an understanding about everyone’s motivations for fighting, before Shinra’s eye for an eye greed—

Tifa decided to shut her eyes and deeply inhale that comforting aroma of a ritual long lost to their modern society. _I wonder what the Ancients believed in, and prayed to?_  

Especially for the sake of her friends now gone, she’d press forward. _No giving up!_

Cloud seemed distracted, not fully hearing Tifa’s reply, staring at Aerith’s lithe form tending her garden underneath the moonlight. His eyes focused in on her mysterious Materia, glittering like a sacred pearl below unseen stars. _Starlight...the heavens above._ It was difficult for Cloud to conceptualize his feelings on the potential holy nature of their Summons, blessings from the Planet itself. But certainly, Aerith’s cheerful and loving personality was an angel personified.

The mercenary's eyes fell to Tifa, her cheeks crimson. Seemed as if she’d been silently captivated by Aerith’s beauty, too. Something about this crumbling church, Cloud felt, had a mystical energy to it...perhaps the Ancients?

_Hmm..no good._ As a regular human, he couldn’t begin to even comprehend what Aerith felt whenever she’d peacefully tend to her modest garden. A small pool of gently lapping light-green Mako burst from the cracked earth below Aerith’s boots.

_Wait, was that here last time, when I fell through the roof? What’s pure Mako doing in a place like this?_

“They’ll be alright if Mom and Marlene water them every few days, hm?”

“H-huh?”

Aerith openly giggled while standing in front of Cloud, too amused at the Ex-Soldier’s suddenly spacey nature. “Don’t worry about it. Hm, Mom should have plenty of supper already waiting for us. After tonight, I know I’m _definitely_ starving.”

“That sounds great.” Tifa nodded. “Oh—it’s fine if Cloud and I share your spare bedroom. We made that jail cell work, after all.” She shrugged off her helpful suggestion like it was nothing, the only way to fool herself into calming her racing heart at the idea of a _truly_ private moment with Cloud.

She should....tell him? Wouldn’t he just have another one of those bizarre breakdowns?

The flower girl frowned, immediately taking note of her new friend visibly biting her lip. Her mind already made up, she happily locked arms with Cloud and Tifa both, herself in the center. Long past midnight, the three began their arm-in-arm-in-arm trek through empty, smog-filled, streets.

“Let’s get some shut eye, ok? We have a long day tomorrow!”

Cloud startled at Aerith’s forward nature and words, mentally calculating just _how_ to step in time with both girls. He shrugged helplessly at a loosened up Tifa, her shoulders wracking in sudden delightful laughter.


End file.
